262 STORY OF A LOST ARCHIPELAGO. 



Golfe, the Ugi or Gulf Island of the present chart. Sailing east- 

 ward, he apprehendedfromthetrendoftheneighbouring St. Christoval 

 coast that he would become embayed ; but his apprehensions were 

 removed when he arrived at the exti'emity of this land, which he 

 named Cape Oriental, and the two ofF-lying small islands of Santa 

 Anna and Santa Catalina were called lies de la Deliverance in token 

 of the danger from which he had apparently been delivered, in 

 total ie:norance of the fact that he had been cruising^ amongst 

 the islands of the lost archipelago of Mendana, Surville now 

 directed his course for New Zealand ; and on account of sangu- 

 inary conflicts with the natives of Port Praslin and Contrariete, 

 he named his discoveries Terre des Arsacides or Land of the 

 Assassins. 



In 1781, Maurelle, the Spanish navigator, in command of the 

 frigate " Princesa," during liis voyage from Manilla to San Bias on 

 the west coast of Mexico,^ came upon the Candelaria Shoals of 

 Mendana, which, lie off the north coast of Isabel Island. I have 

 shown on page 200 that these Candelaria Shoals are no other than 

 the Ontong Java of Tasman, which was identified by M. Fleurieu^ 

 with the discovery of Maurelle. To the south-east of these shoals 

 the " Princesa " approached another, which on account of the roaring 

 of the sea was named El Roncador : this has been erroneously 

 identified with the Candelaria Shoals by M. Fleurieu, and it is so 

 named on the present Admiralty charts. Thus it nearly fell to the 

 lot of the Spanish nation to be amongst the first to find the group 

 they had originally discovered ; but Maurelle was not acquainted 

 with his vicinity to the missing Isles of Salomon, and turning the 

 head of his ship eastward, he proceeded on his voyage. 



In July, 1788, Lieutenant Shortland, when returning to England 

 from Port Jackson in convoy of a fleet of transports, made the 

 Solomon Group near Cape Sydney on the south coast of St. Chris- 

 toval. He skirted the south side of the group until he arrived at 

 Bougainville Straits, and received the impression that he was coast- 

 ing along an apparently continuous tract of land, to which he gave 

 the name of New Georgia. Passing through Bougainville Straits, 

 which, in ignorance of the discoveries of the French navigator, he 

 named after himself, Lieutenant Shortland continued on his voyage. 



1 All account of this voyage is given in " Voyage de la Perouse autour du Monde," i).T:r 

 Milet-Mureau : L'ondon, 1799: vol. I., p. 201. 



•- " Discoveries of the French in 1768 and 1769," etc. : pp. 17!), IS . 



